Kidnapped Christian Doctor in Iraq Freed in Critical Condition

September 22, 2009 – 6:01 pm

daughter’s ransom negotiations lead to release of Kirkuk pediatrician after 29 days of torture

CDN:

 

ISTANBUL, Sept. 22 – Islamic kidnappers in Kirkuk last week dumped a Christian doctor in critical condition in front of a mosque after 29 days of torture and threats to him and his family.

 

Thanks to his 23-year-old daughter’s negotiations with the terrorists, 55-year-old Sameer Gorgees Youssif was freed but with wounds, hematomas and bruises covering his body. The doctor’s daughter, who requested her name be withheld, said that for two weeks the abductors insisted on $500,000, and then dropped the amount to $300,000.

 

The terrorists found phone numbers of friends on the doctor’s mobile phone and called them, instructing them to tell his family that if they did not produce the money they would kill the doctor.

 

In the end, the abductors lowered the demand to $100,000. “They were threatening us all the time, and we were living in hell,” his daughter said. “We just stayed and prayed and fasted and closed the doors and locked them.

 

We were afraid that maybe they would come here and kill all of us. God was our only hope.” The doctor, who was tortured and starved beyond recognition after his abduction on Aug. 18, was left in front of a Kirkuk mosque on Wednesday (Sept. 16) hours after his father-in-law delivered the ransom money in an undisclosed location in Mosul.

 

He was still in the hospital at press time, but his condition was improving, according to his family.

 

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